Another Kind of Fluff
by Caprichoso
Summary: Oneshot, BBRae. Opening your eyes at six in the morning is already difficult enough without an allergic reaction.


**AN: **Greetings from frigid Siberia! I'm totally not used to snow before Halloween, but it's kind of cool. I'm teaching nowadays, which has taken all my time away from writing, but every now and then something comes along and smacks me on the head. This time it was something reblogged by Kasumychan on Tumblr.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Teen Titans, Tumblr, or a down pillow. I'm allergic to the feathers.

**Another Kind of Fluff**

"Wakey wakey, Rae." Scratchy voice. Green. Cute sometimes. Beast Boy. _Say something back._

"Erggh..." _Great job. Try a word next._

"C'mon, beautiful, time to get up. You said you wanted to watch the sunrise together today! Look, I brought you your tea, and I didn't even add sugar to it this time. Even though it would totally taste _way_ better with—"

"Gaarrr... 's like six inna morning." Raven snuffled, still unwilling to lift her head from the pillow. "_Nobody's_ beaut'ful at six 'na morning."

"No, no, stop, we've talked about this. As of last night you are officially my _girlfriend_, and I'm crazy about you, and you _are_ beautiful, even with bed head and morning breath and your eyes all puffy and swollen like..." Beast Boy's words trailed off. "Whoa. "

"What?" the mage snapped... or would have, had she been more awake. As it was, it came out far too plaintive. With an effort worthy of a Homeric chronicle, she strained to open an eyelid and glare at the changeling.

Only the tiniest crack of light appeared, accompanied by an itchy pressure on her eyeball. She tried the other eye, then both at once, without success.

All right, _now_ she was awake.

"Dude, can you even open your eyes at all?" Over the years, the changeling's perpetual sense of wonder had evolved from a constant nuisance to a mildly endearing trait, for the most part. At this particular juncture, though, it was enticing Raven to inflict unspeakable pain on her boyfriend.

"Yes, Gar, I can open them as wide as I like," she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "I just want the first thing I see this morning to be prettier than you."

She felt the little twinge of pain that her words inflicted, just for the barest instant, before it was shrugged off like all her other insults and replaced with a playful spirit. "Ooh, that's a tall order, babe," he said. Azar, she could _hear_ his smirk. "Guess I better go grab you a mirror. Got one in here that doesn't suck people into your brain?"

"Garfield, you are _not helping_ right now." This time the hurt settled deeper; her boyfriend really did hate to see her suffer, but he wasn't sure what to do, so he was falling back on humor. The empath took a few calming breaths and tried for a gentler tone. "Actually, you're right. A mirror _would_ help. There's a little compact in the makeup bag Starfire got me for Glarba...Glorblor..." She sighed. "The Tamaranean version of Christmas. Second drawer in the nightstand, toward the back."

There was a moment of stillness and the sound of a mug gently coming to rest against the nightstand, then the bed bounced as Beast Boy launched himself onto the floor. A brief scuffle and a hot flush of embarrassment later, a round object was plopped into her hand. "So that drawer is for, uh..."

"Girl things, yes. _All_ kinds of girl things. In case you hadn't noticed, I am female, and therefore these things are necessary, however unpleasant they may be. And I assure you, they are."

His discomfort squirmed around her for a few seconds, only to be replaced by something sweet and sultry that made her toes instinctively curl up as they had last night. "Oh, believe me, I noticed that when we were..." he began, then stopped. Determination beat the errant feeling back into its corner, and he spoke again. "Sorry. Not the right time, I know. Sorry. You're just... really hot. Sorry."

Raven smiled despite the situation. "You don't have to apologize so much, Gar. It's flattering, even if your timing is just shy of abysmal." She fumbled with the object in her hands, hoping she was opening it right side up. The last thing she needed was a fine dusting of blush on her sheets.

Luck was with her, albeit only slightly, and she forced her eyes open as much as possible to see what was the matter. Sure enough, both her upper and lower eyelids were swollen to horrific proportions: a surefire sign of an allergic reaction.

"Too uniform to be a mosquito," she muttered, poking experimentally at one puffy flap of skin. "That only leaves..." Her eyes drifted to her boyfriend, now nervously clutching at his pillow.

The pillow he had brought into her room last night, seeing as how she only had one. The pillow she had woken up on this morning.

"Garfield," she said, trying to keep her voice level, "Is that a down pillow?"

The boy's confusion fluttered up her chest. "Uh, y'know the whole thing where I don't eat animals cause I've been them? Kinda the same thing with ripping feathers off a bird."

"Makes sense," she mumbled, staring once more at the eyelash-blurred image of herself. "What in Trigon's name could have done this, then?" Every possibility she could come up with was considered and discarded as her swollen reflection stared back at her. The thought of facing the day like this was not a pleasant one; although there were certain to be antihistamines in the infirmary, she was not looking forward to her teammates' responses. Cyborg would laugh, albeit not as loudly as if Beast Boy had been the one walking around looking like the exact opposite of a tarsier. Robin would want to launch an investigation into the source of her reaction, and she was really not inclined to let him into her room; even Gar had only gotten an invitation to sleep over last night, when they had finally decided to make their relationship official. And Starfire... Starfire would probably liken her face to some sort of horrible-sounding animal from a remote planet somewhere in the Vegan system.

With a growl, Raven rubbed at her eye with a vicious knuckle, but stopped dead when she heard an unusual sound. She repeated the action, only to hear it again.

Her eye was _squeaking_.

Raven did _not_ squeak.

Beast Boy's pillow exploded in his hands. Face flushing red, the empath turned to face her boyfriend. "I'm sorry, Gar, I'll get you another pillow. I'm just so frust—"

Something soft and white floated down to land on her nose. Pinching it between her thumb and forefinger, she examined it as closely as her swollen eyelids would permit.

A second pair of eyes flashed into existence, and her vision became much clearer. She could see hundreds of feathers floating around her room. She saw Garfield's adam's apple bob up and down.

"Y'know, Rae, that bottom set of red eyes looks really squinty still," the changeling babbled. "Maybe we can go get some allergy medicine for... you..." He trailed off as he saw dark tendrils of energy floating towards him. "Raven, hold on a sec, babe. This is totally not my faaaaaaault!" His undignified shriek as he was hauled into the air by one leg was sweet music to Raven's ears.

"This is your pillow, Gar," she said, shaking him to emphasize her words. "Yours. Explain to me how you think this is not your fault."

Beast Boy spontaneously gained Kid Flash's gift for gab. "I'vehadthispilloweversincewemovedintothetowerandI didn'tevenbuyitthenitwasCyborg! Cyborg bought it!"

Her vision was again reduced as red gave way to purple. The sorceress brought her boyfriend's head to rest on the mattress, then released him to flop down all the way. "Cyborg bought the pillow?"

"Yeah," the changeling muttered, bringing a gloved hand up to scrub at his running nose. Despite her impaired vision, Raven had to suppress a giggle at the sight of a green boy in her bed, wearing nothing but gloves and boxer shorts. It was just so... cute, and so undeniably Garfield. "Cy was in charge of buying all our household stuff, cause Robin was busy getting everything set up with the city and he didn't trust me with the credit card. I told him back then no animal products, and I thought he listened to me..." His face fell, ears drooping. "Aww man, I've been sleeping on a murder pillow for years, and I didn't even know it!"

Raven rubbed her boyfriend's back, enjoying the satisfied rumble that vibrated against her hand and rose in pitch as she brought her fingernails to scratch gently at his neck and ears. "Sounds like we both have a grievance to take up with Cyborg," she said. "How about this: I'll sit here and drink this tea that you were so nice to make for me, you run to the infirmary and get me an antihistamine, we cuddle for a little while until I can see properly again, and then we go give our dear Victor a little wakeup call from the both of us? We can watch the sunrise tomorrow."

A wicked grin split her lover's face. "Duuuude. We are gonna be the best couple ever."


End file.
